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President Biden strived with Tuesday night’s State of the Union address to find a plank of bipartisan support in a split Congress, with health care priorities holding up the frame. The president, halfway through his term, pointed to a slew of populist policies he still hopes Congress could achieve, from battling the addiction crisis to improving mental health care access and bolstering support for at-home caregivers. (Owermohle and Wilkerson, 2/7)

The president presented himself as a populist with ideas to help blue-collar workers and restore America’s manufacturing might. He went after big drug companies and big energy companies. More than once he threatened vetoes of possible Republican initiatives and declared that he would not allow the economy to be held hostage over raising the debt ceiling. “Let’s finish the job,” he said in a refrain repeated over and over as he ticked through accomplishments of his first two years in office and offered new proposals. If not the start of a reelection campaign, it was as close as a State of the Union could be to that kickoff. (Balz, 2/7)

The president sought to explain to the public how they stand to benefit from the trillions of dollars in spending Mr. Biden helped shepherd through Congress—including a wide-ranging infrastructure bill; a climate, healthcare, prescription-drug and tax package; and a measure to boost U.S. semiconductor manufacturing. He argued that his policies have helped the U.S. economy recover from the Covid-19 pandemic—pointing to recent positive economic news, including that the unemployment rate is at a 53-year low. “Amid the economic upheaval of the past four decades too many people have been left behind or treated like they’re invisible. Maybe that’s you watching at home,” Mr. Biden said. “I get that. That’s why we’re building an economy where no one is left behind.” (Restuccia and Parti, 2/8)

Biden’s speech began as a promise to play nice with newly empowered House Republicans. Things then went stunningly off-script as GOP jeering escalated throughout the roughly 75 minutes, drowning out some of the president’s biggest moments and foreshadowing a long two years to come under divided government. ... Other parts of Biden’s remarks, though, went just as expected. He received standing ovations on bipartisan issues like support for veterans exposed to toxic burn pits while serving. (Ferris, Everett and hill, 2/7)

The president’s first major encounter with the newly empowered House Republicans featured stark moments of unscripted drama the likes of which were rarely seen during State of the Union addresses of the past. When he mentioned the fentanyl crisis, introducing a father who lost a daughter to an overdose, some Republicans heckled him over drugs entering the country. “The border! The border!” some shouted. “It’s your fault!” At another point, Mr. Biden engaged in a remarkable spontaneous colloquy with Republicans when he accused them of threatening Social Security and Medicare, an assertion that drew some of them to their feet as they rejected the assertion loudly and angrily. At least one of them shouted, “Bullshit!” (Baker, 2/7)

President Biden delivered his annual State of the Union address on Tuesday to a joint session of Congress. The following is a transcript of his remarks, as recorded by The New York Times. (2/8)

Mr. Biden’s speech contained no outright falsehoods, but at times omitted crucial context or exaggerated the facts. Here’s a fact check. (2/8)

Arkansas Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders painted a dystopian portrait of the country in her rebuttal to President Joe Biden’s State of the Union address Tuesday night, leaning heavily into Republican culture war issues and accusing Biden of pursuing “woke fantasies.” Speaking from the governor’s mansion in Little Rock, Sanders sounded a lot like her former boss, Donald Trump, as she warned of a nation whose ideals are under attack and whose citizens are fighting for their freedoms. (DeMillo, 2/8)

For much of the night, President Biden was on the offensive. One of the night's more contentious moments came when Biden was discussing the debt ceiling and the White House's disagreements with Republicans on government borrowing and spending. "Some Republicans -- some Republicans want Medicare and Social Security to sunset,” Biden said as he pledged to prevent Republicans from cutting Social Security and Medicare. “I'm not saying it's the majority. If Congress doesn't keep the programs where they are they go well, the Republicans say I'm not saying there's a majority of you. I don't even think it's even significant.” Although Biden noted that he wasn’t saying the “majority” of Republicans wanted to do so, he was immediately showered with boos from the other side of the aisle. Then it got particularly intense. (Haworth, 2/8)

He said in his Tuesday State of the Union address that he was glad to see their response, adding, “I enjoy conversion.” “As we all apparently agree, Social Security and Medicare is off the books now, right?” Biden said, saying he would stop any effort to cut the social safety nets. He also offered to sit down with Republicans to discuss their mutual fiscal plans. “We’ll pay for it the way we talked about: by making sure the wealthy and big corporations pay their fair share,” Biden said. (Grabenstein, 2/7)

GOP lawmakers are furious with the president, who accused them of wanting to hold the economy "hostage" and sunset Social Security and Medicare. ... "The President has devolved into just lying shamelessly about GOP positions to frighten seniors citizens into voting for him," Rep. Dan Crenshaw, R-Texas, tweeted from his personal account. (Pandolfo, 2/8)

Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-Ga., stood up from her seat in the back of the House chamber to heckle President Joe Biden after he said during his State of the Union address Tuesday that “some Republicans want Medicare and Social Security to sunset” while discussing the need to raise the debt ceiling in order to avoid a US default. “Liar!” she said. Other lawmakers in the chamber booed him. House Speaker Kevin McCarthy, seated behind Biden, shook his head in disapproval. The president leaned over the podium and began to go off script. "Anybody who doubts it, contact my office," Biden said. "I'll give you a copy of the proposal." (Mansfield and Woodall, 2/7)

Biden's quote: “Some Republicans want Medicare and Social Security to sunset. I’m not saying it’s a majority. … Anybody who doubts it, contact my office. I’ll give you a copy.” Fact-check: Not even the person who wrote the plan that Biden referenced says he supports a “sunset” of the old-age programs. “Sunset” is inside-the-Beltway lingo for programs terminating automatically on a periodic basis unless explicitly renewed by law. (Kessler, 2/7)

It’s been 14 years since a Republican member of Congress appeared to cross a threshold by yelling “You lie” at Barack Obama during a speech to a joint session of Congress. Tuesday’s speech marked the continued trend toward partisan raucousness during what was once a much more staid affair. Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.), perhaps predictably, repeated Rep. Joe Wilson’s (R-S.C.) outburst from 2009 when Biden brought up Medicare and Social Security. ... When Biden brought up fentanyl deaths, he was met with a response of: “It’s your fault!” (Blake, 2/7)

Rep. Ruben Gallego (D-Ariz.) accused Sen. Kyrsten Sinema (I-Ariz.) of not applauding President Biden during the State of the Union address when he called for negotiating decreased Medicare drug prices for seniors. “Arizonans elected Senator Sinema to lower prescription drug costs and ensure access to healthcare for all. She abandoned us the second she got to the Senate to do Big Pharma’s bidding and now she’s rubbing it in our faces,” Gallego said in a release moments after Biden stepped down from the podium on Tuesday. (Mueller, 2/7)

Biotech investors don’t often publicly lay out their strategies, but an executive with a top investment firm on Tuesday offered a rare glimpse into the math he and others like him are doing after Democrats empowered Medicare to negotiate drug prices. (Cohrs, 2/7)

KHN: ‘We Ain’t Gonna Get It’: Why Bernie Sanders Says His ‘Medicare For All’ Dream Must Wait

After railing at the injustices of U.S. health care for decades, Sen. Bernie Sanders in January became the new chairman of the Senate Health, Education, Labor & Pensions Committee. The job gives the health care industry’s biggest Washington nemesis an unprecedented opportunity to shape health care reform in Congress. But the sort of radical changes he seeks could prove elusive. Even Sanders concedes there are limits to the powers of his position. President Joe Biden’s State of the Union address Tuesday night showed how much of Sanders’ platform has moved into the mainstream of the Democratic Party, with Biden at times sounding like his former Democratic primary foe, lashing out at Big Pharma and its “record profits.” Biden bragged about measures taken to lower drug prices and halt surprise bills during his term thus far, and he urged Congress to pass a federal expansion of Medicaid. (Allen, 2/8)

President Biden called for expanding a $35 monthly cap on out-of-pocket costs for insulin and criticized Republicans for wanting to repeal parts of legislation that will let Medicare negotiate some drug prices. ... “One in 10 Americans has diabetes. Every day, millions need insulin to control their diabetes so they can stay alive,” Mr. Biden said. “Big Pharma has been unfairly charging people hundreds of dollars – four to five hundred dollars a month – and making record profits. Not any more. Not any more.” He also praised one of this administration’s biggest accomplishments on drug pricing: Legislation empowering Medicare for the first time to negotiate with drug makers over some prices. (Armour, 2/7)

Biden on Tuesday mentioned how the person who discovered insulin didn't patent so that it would be available to everyone. Canadian scientist Frederick Banting discovered insulin in 1921. Scientists treated the first diabetic patient in 1922 and sold the patent to the University of Toronto for 3 Canadian dollars. The university administered the patent and received royalty payments from drug companies that sold human insulin. (Alltucker, 2/7)

President Joe Biden used the word “abortion” — one he has rarely uttered in speeches —in his brief remarks on the issue in his State of the Union address on Tuesday. He again called on federal lawmakers to restore the protections of Roe v. Wade and slammed “extreme” abortion bans. (Panetta, 2/7)

What he said: The vice president and I are doing everything we can to protect access to reproductive health care and safeguard patient privacy. But already, more than a dozen states are enforcing extreme abortion bans. Make no mistake; if Congress passes a national abortion ban, I will veto it. What he meant: I know Congress isn’t going to send this bill to my desk. But please, Republicans, go ahead and take a shot. Decoding: Enough Republicans have expressed their support for a federal abortion ban that Biden can reasonably set this up as a hypothetical. (Stokols, 2/7)

Anti-abortion groups pushed back on the idea that restrictive abortion laws deny treatment to women who face miscarriages after a Texas woman whose life-threatening miscarriage brought attention to the state's abortion laws last year attended Tuesday's State of the Union speech as first lady Jill Biden's guest. (Adcox, 2/7)

President Biden in his State of the Union address called for more resources to curtail veteran suicides as part of a wider plea to invest in federal aid services. In Biden’s speech, his first before a divided Congress, the president also asked for more financial assistance for former service members to help keep a roof over their heads as well as job training and placement for veterans and their spouses as they return to civilian life. (Mitchell, 2/7)

Biden pointed to Covid’s blunted impact on public health and the economy as confirmation of his administration’s progress in fighting the pandemic, insisting the country has reached a clear turning point where it can live safely with the virus. He celebrated the planned expiration of the public health emergency for Covid this spring, and declared that the U.S. has “broken Covid’s grip on us.” Biden allowed that the virus is still circulating, and that his administration would continue working to keep it under control. But in a sign of the pandemic’s shrinking political salience, Biden devoted relatively little time to discussing the next stage of a public health battle that once defined his presidency. (Cancryn, 2/7)

Biden’s remarks included just two mentions of LGBTQ+ rights. Early on, he stated that he had signed “over 300 bipartisan bills” into law, including the Respect for Marriage Act, which makes marriage equality transportable across state lines in the event that the Supreme Court strikes down that right nationwide. And later, after promising to veto an abortion ban, he said: “Let’s also pass the bipartisan Equality Act to ensure LGBTQ Americans, especially transgender young people, can live with safety and dignity.” (Sosin, 2/7)

With the mother and stepfather of Tyre Nichols and the former Mayor of Monterey Park — still reeling from feeling the effects of last month’s gunfire — looking on, President Joe Biden made a passionate plea to the nation Tuesday for a new assault weapons ban and help for neighborhoods plagued by violent crime.. “I know most cops and their families are good, decent people, the vast majority. They risk their lives every time they put that shield on. But what happened to Tyre in Memphis happens too often. We have to do better,” the president said to a joint session of Congress in his State of the Union address. ... One of the remedies to stop this sort of violence, Biden said: Revive the assault weapons ban that ended in 2004. (Lightman, 2/7)

President Joe Biden called for law enforcement to be held to higher standards in his State of the Union address Tuesday — exactly a month after Memphis police fatally beat Tyre Nichols, a 29-year-old Black man. “All of us in this chamber, we need to rise to this moment,” Biden said. “We can’t turn away. Let’s do what we know in our hearts, what we need to do. Let’s come together and finish the job on police reform.” Biden in his speech didn’t directly call for passage of the George Floyd Justice in Policing Act, but he noted that he previously signed an executive order “banning chokeholds, restricting no-knock warrants, and other key elements of the George Floyd Act” for federal officers. (Olander, 2/7)

He also said there was need for more first responders and other professionals to address growing mental health and substance abuse challenges. Members of the Congressional Black Caucus had called on Biden to use his State of the Union speech to push for police reform in the wake of Nichols' death. (Singh, 2/7)

With COVID-19 restrictions now lifted, the White House and legislators from both parties invited guests designed to drive home political messages with their presence in the House chamber. The mother and stepfather of Tyre Nichols, who was severely beaten by police officers in Memphis and later died, were among those seated with first lady Jill Biden. Other Biden guests included the rock star/humanitarian Bono and 26-year-old Brandon Tsay, who disarmed a gunman in last month’s Monterey Park, California, shooting. “There’s no words to describe the heartache and grief of losing a child,” Biden said after introducing RowVaughn and Rodney Wells to a standing ovation. He called on Congress to “rise to this moment” to make meaningful change in policing. (Miller, Kim and Mascaro, 2/8)

Brandon Tsay, the 26-year-old who made worldwide headlines for disarming the Monterey Park gunman last month, stood and waved to the crowd of lawmakers as President Biden labeled him a “hero” and called for new gun control measures in Tuesday night’s State of the Union address. “He thought he was going to die, but then he thought about the people inside,” Biden said as Tsay won a rare bipartisan ovation. “In that instant, he found the courage to act and wrestled the semiautomatic pistol away from a gunman who had already killed 11 people at another dance studio.” (Bierman, 2/7)

A Memphis resident filed a federal civil-rights lawsuit Tuesday alleging he was unjustly beaten by a group of police officers that included those charged with killing Tyre Nichols. The alleged excessive force happened three days before Mr. Nichols’s fatal encounter with police. The suit seeks $5 million in compensatory damages. (Timms, 2/7)

Tyre Nichols faced an onslaught of impossible demands and brutal beatings at the hands of Memphis police officers on Jan. 7 — much of which was caught on three police body cameras and a street camera. ... Video also captures two additional police officers arriving during the final blows and one supervisor, a lieutenant, who appeared about six minutes later as Mr. Nichols lay on the street severely injured. At least 14 responders were at the scene before the ambulance arrived, including 12 law enforcement officers, footage shows. The findings from The Times’s visual analysis were corroborated by documents from the officers’ disciplinary proceedings released by the state of Tennessee on Tuesday. (Cardia, Jhaveri, Lutz, Reneau, Singhvi and Stein, 2/7)

In the wake of the mass shooting in Monterey Park, the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors on Tuesday, Feb. 7 adopted two gun-control regulations, one that bans the sale of large-caliber handguns and ammunition and one that prohibits people from carrying guns in county parks, plazas, beaches and buildings — with exceptions for law enforcement, active military and others. (Scauzillo, 2/7)

There were 120 speaker cards on the desk when Rep. Spenser Roach, R-Fort Myers, gaveled the Constitutional Rights, Rule of Law & Government Operations Subcommittee to order for consideration of a bill to allow the permitless carry of concealed firearms in Florida. (Call, 2/8)

On Tuesday, 10 Georgia Senate Democrats sponsored a bill to penalize family members if they don’t secure or lock a firearm around someone 17 or younger. (Kousouris, 2/7)

President Joe Biden made "ending cancer as we know it" one of his top goals as president, and with two years left in his term [used] his State of the Union address to call on Congress to act. The seven years of funding for the "cancer moonshot," $1.8 billion as authorized through the 21st Century Cures Act, runs out this September. ... The administration plans to take steps to reduce smoking, which is one of the largest contributors to cancer deaths. Administration officials declined to comment on specifics ahead of the speech, but the administration has taken several steps recently to reduce harm from tobacco, such as banning menthol and flavored cigarettes and proposing to limit nicotine in cigarettes. (Cohen, 2/7)

In the final part of the speech, Biden also spoke about his cancer moonshot effort, which he said he reignited last year with First Lady Jill Biden. He mentioned the goal of reducing cancer death rates by at least 50% in the next 25 years and “turn more cancers from death sentences to treatable diseases” and provide more support for patients and families. He invoked former President George W. Bush’s President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR), a global effort to combat HIV/AIDS and described it as a “huge success.” “We thought big, we thought large, we moved,” Biden said as both Republicans and Democrats stood up and applauded. “I believe we can do the same thing with cancer.” (2/8)

The administration is preparing further action to help people avoid smoking and support Americans who want to quit — steps they project could prevent as much as 30 percent of cancer deaths in the US, according to the White House. Also as part of his plan to tackle cancer, Biden will call on Congress to reauthorize the National Cancer Act to update cancer research and care systems and the administration will take steps to ensure patient navigation services are covered benefits. (Gaudiano, 2/7)

In President Joe Biden’s State of the Union address Tuesday, he paid tribute to his predecessor’s effort, calling PEPFAR a "huge success." In 2003, the same State of the Union address that primed the nation for the invasion of Iraq that would begin less than two months later, Bush stunned the world’s global health and political leaders by announcing what was then a $15 billion, five-year commitment to combat the international scourge of AIDS. (Ryan, 2/7)

Early in the COVID-19 pandemic, 622 more US physicians died than expected, but no excess deaths occurred after April 2021, when vaccines were broadly available, finds a study yesterday in JAMA Internal Medicine. Stanford University researchers led the analysis of American Medical Association monthly death data from January 2016 to February 2020 among active and nonactive physicians aged 45 to 84 years. The team used this model to estimate expected deaths from March 2020 to December 2021 and then calculated excess deaths. (Van Beusekom, 2/7)

Coronavirus levels monitored in Bay Area wastewater reveal another COVID-19 wave is under way in several regions despite the low case rates reported on the local health department dashboards. The San Jose sewer shed in Santa Clara County shows a “high” level of the coronavirus gene per gram of waste solids,  according to state data on viral counts in wastewater. (Vaziri, 2/7)

Preventing long COVID and its array of potential symptoms that can afflict the body could depend on a person’s lifestyle, a new Harvard-led study suggests. Sticking to simple, healthy habits such as getting good sleep is not only beneficial to one’s overall health, but may also significantly lower the chances of developing long COVID, according to research published Feb. 6 in the journal JAMA Internal Medicine. (Marnin, 2/7)

People who know someone who became ill with COVID-19 or died from the disease are twice as likely to receive a vaccine, according to a study led by Rutgers and Penn State University. The study published in the journal Vaccine surveyed about 1,200 people who were eligible for the shots in April 2021 to determine whether knowing of a friend’s or family member’s COVID-19 infection or death prompted them to get the shots shortly after the Food and Drug Administration’s emergency-use authorization of the mRNA vaccines. (Vaziri, 2/7)

Last year's increase in severe strep infections in children amounted only to a return to levels of the disease from before the COVID-19 pandemic, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported last week, based on early figures from 2022. (Tin, 2/7)

The Biden administration urged the Supreme Court on Tuesday to dismiss a challenge to ending the pandemic-era immigration measure known as Title 42, saying that the government’s announcement that the health emergency would expire on May 11 would make the case moot. The court in December blocked a trial judge’s ruling that would have lifted the measure, which has allowed even migrants who might otherwise qualify for asylum to be swiftly expelled at the southern border. The justices are scheduled to hear arguments in the case on March 1. (Liptak, 7)

When House Republicans grill Biden administration officials on the COVID-19 response at a Wednesday hearing, some of the sharpest questions may surround how the government oversees research on pathogens that can cause pandemics. (Reed and Bettelheim, 2/8)

Texas sued the administration of U.S. President Joe Biden on Tuesday to prevent it from asking pharmacies to fill reproductive health prescriptions. The Biden administration said in July 2022 that refusing to fill prescriptions for drugs that could be used to terminate a pregnancy could violate federal law, regardless of various state bans on the procedure. (Singh, 2/7)

“By requiring pharmacies that receive Medicare and Medicaid funds – including retail pharmacies operated by Texas Tech University Health Sciences Center – to dispense abortifacients when the life of the mother is not in danger, the Pharmacy Mandate flouts Dobbs’s holding that States may regulate abortion and directly infringes on Texas’s sovereign and quasisovereign authority,” the lawsuit states. (Sneed, 2/8)

A federal court in Texas could this week block access to mifepristone, a major drug used for managing abortions. The ramifications of this decision — including blocking future distribution of the drug — would be felt across the country. (Luthra, 2/7)

But attorneys general from 20 states with strict abortion bans have issued a stark warning to pharmacies that following through on mailing abortion pills would violate federal and some state laws. Missouri Attorney General Andrew Bailey wrote the letter. He spoke to ABC News Live’s Linsey Davis about why the attorneys general issued the warning and whether women who receive the medication could face prosecution. (2/7)

The Arkansas Senate on Tuesday handily approved a bill that would repeal the state law under which a clinic, health center or other facility in which a pregnancy of a woman is willfully terminated or aborted shall be licensed by the state Department of Health. (Wickline, 2/8)

Division was on full display this week as lawmakers churned through hundreds of last-minute bills before Tuesday night’s deadline for “crossover,” when the House of Delegates and Senate must finish work on their own measures and send them to the opposite chamber. ... None of about 20 proposed constitutional amendments got a vote in the House — most notably, one supporting Gov. Glenn Youngkin (R) in his call for a ban on abortions after 15 weeks, with exceptions for rape, incest and the life of the mother. (Schneider and Vozzella, 2/7)

Anabely Lopes wanted a child more than anything, so the 44-year-old was ecstatic when she became pregnant last year — and then devastated when doctors said her unborn child had a fatal abnormality. After a painful discussion with her husband and her doctors, Lopes decided to get an abortion. But she says undergoing the procedure in Florida proved to be complicated: A new law restricting abortion access had gone into effect days earlier, and Lopes soon found herself on a plane, leaving South Florida to get an abortion at a clinic in Washington. (Marchante, 2/7)

In a setback to the pharmaceutical industry, a federal judge has tossed a lawsuit that sought to prevent state governments from importing medicines from Canada. The decision is likely to embolden more states to now consider the approach as they look to lower the cost of prescription drugs. (Silverman, 2/7)

Cutting down on pollution in the pharma, agriculture and health-care sectors is key to help fight superbugs, according to a new report. Hospitals, drugmakers and animal farms release a mix of antimicrobials, metals and other chemicals in wastewater that foster the development of bacteria equipped to resist even the world’s most potent antibiotics, the United Nations Environment Program said Tuesday. (Pham, 2/7)

CVS Health Corp said on Wednesday it would buy primary care provider Oak Street Health Inc for about $9.5 billion in cash as the pharmacy giant looks to foray into the urgent care business. (2/8)

KHN: The Pill Club Reaches $18.3 Million Medicaid Fraud Settlement With California 

The Pill Club, an online women’s pharmacy, has reached an $18.3 million settlement with California authorities over claims it defrauded the state’s Medicaid program by prescribing birth control pills without adequate consultation and shipping tens of thousands of female condoms to customers who didn’t want them. Attorney General Rob Bonta announced the agreement Tuesday, a day after a state court unsealed a whistleblower complaint against The Pill Club, which markets convenient reproductive health services to women nationwide. The whistleblowers’ complaint alleges the Silicon Valley company also bilked private health insurers in at least 38 states, including California. (Thompson, 2/7)

An experimental drug that in a clinical trial helped some women quickly recover from postpartum depression could be approved by federal regulators by Aug. 6. The medicine, developed by Sage Therapeutics, is poised to become the first pill for the condition, which afflicts as many as 1 in 8 new mothers. (Cross, 2/6)

In a bid to expand access to pricey cystic fibrosis treatments, a coalition of families and activists are petitioning four governments — South Africa, India, Brazil, and Ukraine — to make it possible to obtain generic versions of a medicine sold by Vertex Pharmaceuticals. And the coordinated effort underscores the growing global battle over equal access to medicines. (Silverman, 2/7)

When Nestlé SA’s peanut allergy medicine first hit the market in 2020, Robert Wood, the director of pediatric allergy at Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore, started preparing to offer it to the children he treats. But Covid-19 soon derailed in-person treatment, so over the next year and a half Wood and his colleagues told some 1,000 patients about the new drug instead, suggesting they consider it when the pandemic abated. (Afanasieva and Kresge, 2/8)

Complete Genomics, a U.S. firm affiliated with Chinese sequencing giant BGI, on Tuesday announced plans to launch a new line of sequencers it says can decode DNA in larger amounts — and at lower costs — than any instrument on the market. (Wosen, 2/7)

Centene expects to lose an estimated 2.2 million Medicaid members during the redetermination process over the next 18 months, which would significantly dial back the insurer's pandemic-era growth. (Devereaux, 2/7)

Judge Jeremy D. Kernodle of the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Texas tossed portions of the final rule issued by three federal agencies in August related to the independent resolution process that aims to settle payment disputes between out-of-network insurers and providers. The regulation instructs a third-party arbiter to consider both an insurer's median in-network rate, or qualified payment amount, and additional information when determining the correct payment for a surprise bill. (Kacik, 2/7)

Encompass Health saw profits plummet nearly 30% last year as it dealt with the rising labor costs and inflation besetting the healthcare sector, the inpatient rehabilitation provider reported Tuesday. Net income for the Birmingham, Alabama-based company reached $365.9 million in 2022, compared with $517.2 million in the prior year. Revenue increased 8.3% to $4.35 billion and operating expenses grew 10.8% to $3.72 billion. Salaries and wages rose 12.5%. (Hudson, 2/7)

The newly-minted CEO of the Alphabet health tech spinout Verily is not a doctor or a Ph.D. scientist. He’s never run a top-flight lab or published a seminal paper in health care. His breakthrough executive job, far from the halls of science or medicine, was at Starbucks. But Stephen Gillett, 47, now finds himself in charge of one of the most ambitious (some would say overhyped) efforts to transform American health care with technology. (Ross, 2/8)

Private equity firm Carlyle Group Inc. is in talks to buy health-care technology firm Cotiviti Inc. for close to $15 billion, including debt, from Veritas Capital, according to people familiar with the matter. (Lee, Davis and Brown, 2/7)

A bipartisan group of senators fiercely criticized several prominent telehealth startups for failing to protect sensitive health information, citing an investigation by STAT and The Markup which found dozens of telehealth companies sharing patient data with Facebook, Google and other major advertising platforms. (Wilkerson, 2/7)

David Finn recently received a prestigious award from the Baldrige Foundation for Leadership Excellence in the Cybersecurity sector. The Humble resident has a storied career in the private sector in cybersecurity but isn’t talking about his award. Instead, the veteran tech guru is warning everyone he knows of the dangers lurking with medical records on the internet. “I guess we can ignore it, and pretend it's not happening, but it's happening every day,” he said. (Taylor, 2/7)

New York City’s embattled social services commissioner, who has faced criticism over his handling of the city’s homelessness crisis, said in a television interview on Tuesday that he is resigning. The commissioner, Gary Jenkins, has overseen the city’s response to one of the greatest challenges facing New York City as the homeless population hit a record last year. (Fitzsimmons and Newman, 2/7)

For patients, being able to drop a message to your doctor for some quick medical advice is one of the best things about electronic patient portals. But if your doctor is at one of the 15 Novant hospitals or dozens of clinics in the system, you may have to pay for that. (Crouch, 2/8)

Many baby formula milk companies allegedly exploit parents' emotions and "manipulate" scientific data to boost sales, according to a major new analysis published in The Lancet. The analysis, led by Professor Nigel Rollins of the World Health Organization, said urgent clampdowns are needed to address misleading claims made by the industry. (Kekatos and Salzman, 2/7)

Makers of infant formula use misleading marketing and aggressive lobbying tactics to drive sales in a $55 billion-a-year industry, according to a three-paper series from the World Health Organization. (Afanasieva and Meghjani, 2/7)

Infants born to Latino, low-income or limited-English-speaking parents are more likely to be diagnosed later with congenital heart disease than white infants – or lack a prenatal diagnosis at all, a new study found. Congenital heart disease, which consists of structural heart abnormalities, is the most common type of birth defect. The findings were published in the Journal of Pediatric Cardiology. (Hassanein, 2/7)

Health care providers must check pregnant patients’ blood pressure regularly, starting early on and continuing throughout pregnancy, according to new draft recommendations from the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force. The task force issued the draft recommendations on Tuesday amid growing concern about a rise in maternal mortality. Pregnancy-related deaths in the United States are the highest among industrialized nations, and hypertensive disorders of pregnancy are among the leading causes. (Rabin, 2/7)

Sen. Josh Hawley, R-Mo., intends to make his focus in the current Congress a legislative package aimed at protecting children online — including by setting the age threshold to be on social media at 16. In an interview with NBC News, Hawley detailed some top lines of what his agenda will include, such as: Mandating social media companies verify the age of their users. (Smith, 2/7)

In search of a good night’s sleep, 18 percent of U.S. adults use some type of medication to help them snooze, according to a report from the National Center for Health Statistics, part of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. This includes those who say they take sleep medication most nights (6 percent), every night (2 percent) or some nights (10 percent). More women than men take sleep medication, and usage overall increases with age, the report finds. (Searing, 2/7)

Mexican police detained a medical doctor and two others on Tuesday, all implicated in causing a meningitis outbreak in northern Mexico, after a surge of local cases in recent months led to the death of at least 35 women. Another 79 people have been hospitalized with signs of infection. Police in northern Durango state early on Tuesday morning arrested the doctor, an anesthesiologist, who prosecutors accuse of distributing infected medicines they believe led to the mysterious outbreak. (Diaz, 2/7)

Boston University researchers say they have now diagnosed 345 former NFL players with chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE) out of 376 former players studied. In comparison to that 91.7% CTE rate of studied former NFL players, a past BU study of 164 brains of men and women found that only 1 of 164 (0.6%) had CTE. The lone CTE case was a former college football player. (Sobey, 2/7)

Ankle sprains and their recoveries can vary significantly. They usually range from a Grade 1 sprain — which is mild, with swelling and pain — to Grade 3 — which is severe, with torn ligaments. But they also can be distinguished by the location and the types of ligaments affected. A low ankle sprain affects the ligaments connecting the bones in the foot. A high ankle sprain affects the tissue between the tibia and fibula in the lower leg. The recovery time for a high ankle sprain is typically longer than recovery from a low ankle sprain because of the constant weight-bearing and twisting and turning of the ligaments. (Jhabvala, 2/7)

While the flames that tore through five cars of a derailed train that were carrying a potentially explosive chemical have died out in East Palestine, Ohio, officials say more data is needed on the area’s air and water quality to lift evacuation orders. After Monday’s release and burn of a toxic chemical from the derailed train cars, authorities said they turned their attention to making sure that the air within the evacuation zone is safe for residents. (Salahieh, 2/8)

Vinyl chloride was slowly released into the air Monday from five of the 10 derailed cars before crews ignited it to get rid of the highly flammable, toxic chemicals in a controlled environment, creating a dark plume of smoke. The impact of burning vinyl chloride is a concern. ... Vinyl chloride is associated with increased risk of liver cancer and other cancers, according to the federal government’s National Cancer Institute. ... Officials warned the controlled burn would send phosgene and hydrogen chloride into the air. Phosgene is a highly toxic, colorless gas with a strong odor that can cause vomiting and breathing trouble and was used as a weapon in World War I. (2/8)

“I want nothing more than to get my residents back home,” said East Palestine Fire Chief Keith Drabick. He said he was still waiting for monitoring data and further guidance from health experts. “Quite frankly, once I feel it’s safe for my family to return we will lift that evacuation order to allow people to go home.” Randy Padfield, director of the Pennsylvania Emergency Management Agency, said no concerning air-quality readings had been detected. But he urged residents living within 2 miles of the derailment to stay indoors and keep their windows closed.  (Maher and Fung, 2/7)

An outbreak of a highly pathogenic avian influenza strain is decimating wild and farmed bird populations globally, fueling a debate about the most effective ways to end it and the potential risk to humans. Some experts are concerned about the possibility that the H5N1 virus could one day evolve to more easily spread from birds to mammals. Although the risk to humans remains low, speculation about the virus has caused worry that the bird flu outbreak could develop into a larger threat. (Bever and Timsit, 2/7)

Veteran influenza epidemiologist Keiji Fukuda remembers vividly when he first became fearful that a virulent bird flu virus, H5N1, might be on the verge of triggering a devastating pandemic. The virus, seemingly out of nowhere, did something bird flu viruses were thought not to be able to do. It infected 18 people, killing six of them. That happened in 1997, in Hong Kong. (Branswell, 2/8)

Veterinary authorities in Peru yesterday confirmed H5N1 avian influenza in sea lions and a dolphin, adding more reports of detections in mammals as the virus continues its push into Central and South America. (Schnirring, 2/7)

A study published on Jan. 24, 2023, showed that toddlers whose mothers were exposed to high levels of pollution during mid- to late-pregnancy were prone to lower cognitive scores. The researchers followed 161 Latino mothers with infants in Southern California. They used EPA data to calculate the mothers’ past exposure to air pollution from roadside traffic, industry and wildfire smoke. (Roedel, 2/6)

In the HBO show “The Last of Us,” characters identify zombies among them by the fungi that bursts from their bodies, and fungal parasites manipulate the humans to infect the communities around them. In real life, the fungal species that inspired the story, Ophiocordyceps, infects insects and does not cause problems for people. However, the threat from fungal pathogens is increasing, experts say, and may grow much worse in a warmer, wetter and sicker world. (Christensen, 2/7)

New HIV cases in D.C. remain far below historic highs, but in 2021 the city saw an uptick in diagnoses that public health experts say is likely to continue until testing and treatment return to pre-pandemic levels. There were 230 new HIV diagnoses in 2021, a decline of 83 percent from the peak of 1,374 cases in 2007 but an increase from 2019, when 219 cases were diagnosed, according to the Annual HIV, Hepatitis, Sexually Transmitted Infections (STIs), and Tuberculosis (TB) Surveillance Report, which the city released Tuesday. (Portnoy, 2/7)

The D.C. Council passed emergency legislation Tuesday to spend $850,000 to design suicide barriers on the William Howard Taft Bridge. The emergency legislation, introduced by council member Charles Allen (D-Ward 6), reallocates money within the District Department of Transportation (DDOT) budget to draw up the project on the bridge, which carries Connecticut Avenue NW over Rock Creek. It comes after two deaths by suicide on the bridge in the past year — the most recent in January — and months of community advocacy to build the barriers. (Elwood, 2/7)

Five cases of toxic shock syndrome, a potentially deadly bacterial infection caused by the improper use of tampons, have been reported in Wisconsin since July, an alarming number given the last confirmed case was more than a decade ago. Four of the five cases were associated with super absorbency tampons used by teenage females, according to a Wisconsin Department of Health Services statement Tuesday. State Health officials stressed on a call with reporters Tuesday that no single brand is to blame. (Van Egeren, 2/7)

As Boston prepares a pilot program that would offer free menstrual products in the city’s public buildings, three city councilors are pushing for the city to widen its focus by including contraceptive methods such as condoms and Plan B into the program. (Woodard, 2/7)

A bill barring the discussion of sexual orientation and gender identity in Missouri schools drew criticism during public testimony Tuesday. Under the legislation, teachers, counselors, school nurses, principals or other employees at public or charter schools would be prohibited from talking about sexual orientation and gender identity with students. It does allow such discussions if the employee is a licensed mental health provider and prior parental permission is given. (Kellogg, 2/7)

Top Republicans in the Maine Legislature on Tuesday criticized a push for a sweeping paid family and medical leave program.It promises to be one of the highest-profile items debated in the State House this year and is moving along two tracks. Supporters are trying to get a referendum on the 2023 ballot that would put Maine among 11 other states to start this kind of publicly funded insurance program. Meanwhile, a state commission is set to deliver its recommended version to the Democratic-led Legislature. (Shepherd, 2/7)

KHN: More Young Colorado Children Are Consuming Marijuana Despite Efforts To Stop Them 

The number of children — especially very young ones — ingesting marijuana is rising in Colorado despite regulations meant to keep edibles out of kids’ hands, and state leaders said they have no plans to revisit those rules this year. The number of reports the Rocky Mountain Poison and Drug Safety office received of kids age 5 or younger exposed to marijuana skyrocketed from 56 in 2017 to 151 in 2021. By 2021, this age group made up nearly half of all marijuana exposures — in which the drug is ingested, inhaled, or absorbed through the skin — reported to the office, which is part of the nonprofit Denver Health organization. (Santoro, 2/8)

A 4-year-old Montgomery County girl began gasping for air one evening in early 2021, and seemed unusually drowsy though it was not yet bedtime. She was rushed more than 15 miles away to Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, where she was diagnosed with acute respiratory distress and fitted with a breathing mask. (Avril and Purcell, 2/8)

For many people with opioid addiction, getting treatment isn’t simply about finding the right doctor. Heavy federal restrictions around methadone — one of the most effective addiction medications — can keep this lifesaving treatment out of reach for those who lack housing, or transportation, or can’t take time off at work. Rhode Island is testing a solution to get around these barriers to treatment: a methadone clinic that operates out of a van to get medication to vulnerable patients. (Whelan, 2/7)

Saratoga County officials unveiled a comprehensive, near real-time substance use surveillance dashboard today. Saratoga is the first upstate county to offer a dashboard like this which helps the county in its education, prevention, treatment, and response efforts in combatting the opioid epidemic. (House, 2/7)

A suburban school district southwest of Austin shared a video in classrooms that depicts a student performing CPR on his friend for 15 minutes after he suffered from a suspected fentanyl poisoning. It’s part of an aggressive awareness campaign launched after four students in the Hays school district died from fentanyl poisoning or suspected poisoning. Other videos feature the parents and friends of students who died. (Olivares, 2/8)

Clinicians may wish to carefully weigh the risks and benefits when considering drug tapering for patients on long-term opioids therapy with stable doses, the results of a new study suggest. This action may trigger a series of unintended consequences, investigators say. (Lasek, 2/8)

Two studies published last week highlight how a highly drug-resistant enteric pathogen is challenging clinicians and public health officials. The studies, which appeared in The Lancet Infectious Diseases, describe an outbreak of different strains of multidrug-resistant (MDR) Shigella in Washington state and the emergence of an extensively drug-resistant (XDR) strain in England. (Dall, 2/7)

An analysis of data from 71 countries shows that over the first 2 years of the pandemic, antibiotic sales increases were linked with increases in COVID-19 cases, researchers reported last week in eClinical Medicine. (Dall, 2/7)

Pharmaceutical companies that made billions from the pandemic over the past two years selling vaccines and treatments are now up against a steep COVID cliff and investor pressure to spend their windfalls wisely. (Erman and Wingrove, 2/6)

An early-stage clinical trial of GSK’s Jemperli in rectal cancer recently attracted strong interest among media outlets aimed at the general public, including The New York Times. But the FDA isn’t convinced. (Liu, 2/7)

When Seshagiri Buddana learned of a powerful new cystic fibrosis drug that was transforming lives in the United States and Europe, he was filled with hope that it could help his son, Hemanth, who had spent much of his childhood in a hospital bed. But the family couldn’t get the drug because they live in India. (Nolen and Robbins, 2/7)

The drug, known as Farxiga in the U.S., gained a nod in Europe to treat patients suffering from heart failure with any type of left ventricular ejection fraction, including mildly reduced and preserved. (Becker, 2/7)

The first drug to show that it slows Alzheimer’s is on sale, but treatment for most patients is still several months away. Two big factors behind the slow debut, experts say, are scant insurance coverage and a long setup time needed by many health systems. Patients who surmount those challenges will step to the head of the line for a drug that delivers an uncertain benefit. Here’s a closer look. (Murphy, 2/4)

Gilead Sciences said on Friday the U.S. Food and Drug Administration had greenlighted the use of Trodelvy for a third indication, providing another treatment option for patients with the most common type of breast cancer. The drug was approved for an advanced form of breast cancer with a subtype known as HR-positive/HER2-negative in patients, who had stopped responding to a hormone-based therapy and at least two earlier systemic therapies. (Mahobe and Satija, 2/3)

A group of U.S. and European medical device and pharmaceutical companies on Thursday failed to convince a U.S. appeals court to reconsider its ruling last year that allowed a lawsuit to move forward that claimed they helped to fund terrorism in Iraq that killed or injured American service members. (Scarcella, 2/3)

A secondary analysis of results from a phase 3 clinical trial found that an investigational microbiome therapeutic for treatment of recurrent Clostridioides difficile infection (rCDI) was associated with significant quality-of-life improvements compared with placebo, researchers reported this week in JAMA Network Open. (Dall, 2/2)

Since its approval in 2019, the drug therapy, Trikafta, has been heralded as a game changer for a majority of those with cystic fibrosis. The disease is caused by defects in a protein that affects the body’s cells and tissues, leading to mucus that accumulates in the lungs and other organs. Trikafta, a combination of three drugs, helps the faulty protein function more effectively. (Daniela J. Lamas, 2/6)

Vaccines are critical and effective tools in our fight against COVID-19, but they cannot be our only tool. It is clear that when the virus evades vaccines (or when people choose not to take them), therapeutics become our best line of defense to prevent hospitalizations and death. (Dr. Jerome Adams, 2/6)

Unlike monoclonal antibodies, which can be defeated by new SARS-CoV-2 variants, CCP collected from vaccinated donors after recent breakthrough infections (VaxCCP) evolves with the variants and retains the ability to neutralize them. (Michael J. Joyner, Nigel Paneth and Arturo Casadevall, 2/6)

The opioid fentanyl was developed in the 1960s and approved for use in 1968. Created to manage cancer pain via a transdermal patch, fentanyl is also used in anesthesia. In 2019, it was the 278th most prescribed medication in the United States, with more than a million prescriptions. (Shane Reeves, 2/3)

When I wore my first Apple Watch in 2015, I was smitten with the idea that quantifying my activity might empower me to get moving and lose weight like my doctor ordered. After now tracking 25 million steps, my weight is about the same. Did closing all those rings actually do anything Researchers have been asking the same question for nearly a decade now. What they tell me: Buying a fitness tracker or smartwatch isn’t going to help you lose weight. In fact — yikes — wearing a gadget could even undermine your efforts. (Geoffrey A. Fowler, 2/7)

Could a federal judge really declare that an abortion drug used safely by millions of American women over more than two decades did not receive proper vetting and force it off the market? (Robin Abcarian, 2/8)

As President Biden delivered his State of the Union address, the country’s condition could fairly be described this way: Considering all the recent upheaval, it could be a lot worse. Yet it remains deeply divided, and that is itself a long-term threat to U.S. prosperity. (2/7)

Advocates and researchers even believe that legal access to medical cannabis could potentially alleviate the opioid addiction crisis reported among veterans by providing them a safer, alternative treatment for chronic pain—a crisis which, again, significantly affects Black Americans more than their white counterparts. (Jeremy Butler, 2/7)

Big Pharma has interests worth billions of dollars in the COVID-19 discussion, including vaccine development, emergency use authorization of drugs and future drug development. Questions that might adversely affect the financial interests of the pharmaceutical industry concerning any of these subjects are not especially welcome — but are necessary. (Cory Franklin, 2/7)